The future of snack food: good for your waist, good for waste

A new healthy vegetable snack has hit the shelves drawing on innovation from Australia’s national science agency CSIRO together with start-up Nutri V. Based on early work supported by a Hort Innovation Vegetable Fund project, the Nutri V Goodies have two serves of vegetables in every pack and are a convenient option for people to increase their intake.

The Hort Innovation project, Creating value from edible vegetable waste (VG15076), which ran from 2016 to early 2019, investigated potential ways to gain value from vegetables that would otherwise be lost to the supply chain. The research successfully transformed fresh broccoli and carrot into shelf-stable, safe, nutritious, functional ingredients and products, including broccoli and carrot powders.

Off the back of this research, the Nutri V snacks contain broccoli, pumpkin and cauliflower which can’t be sold and would otherwise have gone to waste, often as landfill or animal feed. They have a higher vegetable content and health star rating than many other snack foods on the market. The new product will reduce food waste, support farmers to be more sustainable and help Australians to eat their daily serve of vegetables.

Growers, researchers and retailers working together on providing consumers with sustainable products

Meet Nutri V CEO Raquel Said

Nutri V CEO Raquel Said says the company was born from a farming business with a passion for innovation and sustainability.

“Part of growing veggies can involve ending up with tonnes that do not meet specification or there is an oversupply and also stalks and leaves, yet it is all still perfectly nutritious,” Ms Said explained.  

“We wanted to create a business to upcycle that waste into a sustainable yet delicious solution, which is what we have done with the Nutri V vegetable powders, a star ingredient in Nutri V Goodie snacks.

“We see this as vegetables reimagined, no fork required, and we think it is the future of helping Australians top up their veggie consumption while supporting farmers to reduce waste.”

Meet CSIRO director of agriculture and food Dr Michael Robertson

CSIRO’s director of agriculture and food Dr Michael Robertson says vegetable-rich food innovation such as Nutri V helps farmers add real value to their businesses, while supporting sustainability in the agrifood sector.    

“With CSIRO’s unique expertise and our world-class food research facilities, we can support the creation of healthy concept products and in the case of Nutri V, developing an innovative scaled process to take it to market,” Dr Robertson said.

“This partnership with a business at the forefront of agricultural production is a terrific example of how research can work with industry for the benefit of Australia.”

Meet Coles chief executive of commercial and express Leah Weckert

Coles chief executive of commercial and express Leah Weckert says the company is proud to work alongside partners to develop innovative products that support Coles’ sustainability ambitions and make it easier for Australians to increase their vegetable consumption.

“Coles is very excited to welcome Nutri V Goodies exclusively to our shelves. Our customers now have yet another way to enjoy Australian grown vegetables that are good for them and the environment,” Ms Weckert said.

“This innovative project highlights how working with Coles’ suppliers can help us achieve our sustainability ambitions together.”

What is next for Nutri V?

Nutri V’s first processing module is located on the farm of its parent company, Fresh Select, one of Australia’s biggest brassica growers. The veggies are picked and sorted in the mornings, then washed, dried into powders, and turned into the snacks by the afternoon.  

It is a system Nutri V hopes to take to other vegetable growing areas in Australia to help them tackle food waste. CSIRO and Nutri V are also working together on a suite of veggie-based innovations using other CSIRO technologies.

Fast facts

• Less than 10 per cent of Australian adults eat their recommended five serves of veg a day
• On average, two to three in every 10 vegetable plants planted on-farm are wasted. The amount of food that is lost, or what is left behind in the field such as leaves and stalks, has not been measured.
• According to the Australian Dietary Guidelines, the standard Australian serve of vegetables is 75 grams or around half a cup of cooked vegetables, which is equivalent to 7.5g of Nutri V vegetable powder.